A main purpose of the ESPAD project is to collect comparable data on alcohol, tobacco and drug use among 15–16 year old students in European countries. The studies are conducted as school surveys by researchers in each participating country, during the same period of time and with a common methodology. By adopting this ESPAD format, comprehensive and comparable data on alcohol, tobacco and drug use among European students are produced.

ESPAD report 2003: alcohol and other drug use among students in 35 European countries.

Importance The prevalence of underage alcohol use has been studied extensively, but binge drinking among youth in the United States is not yet well understood. In particular, adolescents may drink much larger amounts than the threshold (5 drinks) often used in definitions of binge drinking. Delineating various levels of binge drinking, including extreme levels, and understanding predictors of such extreme binge drinking among youth will benefit public health efforts. Objective To examine the prevalence and predictors of 5+ (≥5 drinks) binge drinking and of 10+ (≥10 drinks) and 15+ (≥15 drinks) extreme binge drinking among 12th graders in the United States. Design, Setting, and Participants A nonclinical nationally representative sample of high school seniors in the annual Monitoring the Future study between 2005 and 2011. The sample included 16 332 high school seniors (modal age, 18 years) in the United States. Response rates were 79.1% to 84.7%. Main Outcomes and Measures Prevalence of consuming 5 or more, 10 or more, and 15 or more drinks in a row in the last 2 weeks. Results Between 2005 and 2011, a total of 20.2% of high school seniors reported 5+ binge drinking, 10.5% reported 10+ extreme binge drinking, and 5.6% reported 15+ extreme binge drinking in the last 2 weeks. Rates of 5+ binge drinking and 10+ extreme binge drinking have declined since 2005, but rates of 15+ extreme binge drinking have not significantly declined. Students with college-educated parents were more likely to consume 5 or more drinks but were less likely to consume 15 or more drinks than students whose parents were not college educated. Students from more rural areas were more likely than students from large metropolitan areas to consume 15 or more drinks. Substance-related attitudes, socializing with substance-using peers, the number of evenings out with friends, and other substance use (cigarettes and marijuana) predicted all 3 levels of binge and extreme binge drinking. Conclusions and Relevance Binge drinking at the traditionally defined 5+ drinking level was common among high school seniors representative of all 12th graders in the contiguous United States. A significant segment of students also reported extreme binge drinking at levels 2 and 3 times higher. These data suggest the importance of assessing multiple levels of binge drinking behavior and their predictors among youth to target effective screening and intervention efforts.

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapediatrics/articlepdf/1738765/poi130025.pdf

Extreme Binge Drinking Among 12th-Grade Students in the United States: Prevalence and Predictors

Urbanization is probably the single most important demographic shift world-wide throughout the past and the new century and represents a sentinel change from how most of the world's population has lived for the past several thousand years. As urban living becomes the predominant social context for the majority of the world's population, the very ubiquity of urban living promises to shape health directly and to indirectly affect what we typically consider risk factors or determinants of population health. Although a growing body of research is exploring how characteristics of the urban environment may be associated with health (e.g. depression) and risk behaviours (e.g. exercise patterns), relatively little research has systematically assessed how the urban environment may affect drug use and misuse. In this paper we will propose a conceptual framework for considering how different characteristics of the urban environment (e.g. collective efficacy, the built environment) may be associated with drug use and misuse, summarize the existing empiric literature that substantiates elements of this framework, and identify potential directions for future research.

/pdf/drug-use-misuse-and-the-urban-environment-3izc54bksm.pdf

Drug use, misuse, and the urban environment

Handbok of urban health:Populations, Methods and Practice , Handbok of urban health:Populations, Methods and Practice , کتابخانه الکترونیک و دیجیتال - آذرسا

Handbook of urban health : populations, methods, and practice

Rural Healthy People 2010: Identifying Rural Health Priorities and Models for Practice

OBJECTIVES: This study compared prevalence of substance use among high school seniors in rural and urban areas from 1976 through 1992. METHODS: We used data collected for these years from urban (n = 75,916) and rural (n = 51,182) high school seniors. Thirty-day prevalence for alcohol, cigarettes, marijuana, cocaine, LSD, and inhalant use, binge drinking, smoking a pack or more of cigarettes a day, and daily alcohol and marijuana use were evaluated. RESULTS: Substance use declined from 1976 through 1992. In 1976, urban students had greater prevalence for most substances, but by 1992, rural and urban students were similar, with rural students having higher prevalence for alcohol and cigarette use (particularly excessive use). Trends were similar for both sexes, though rural girls showed a later catch-up to use levels of urban girls. CONCLUSIONS: Rural students are currently at risk approximately equal to that of urban students. Other studies have demonstrated the association of substance use with increased ...

C E Cronk

Papers

Alcohol, tobacco, and other drug use among rural/small town and urban youth: a secondary analysis of the monitoring the future data set.